by Val McDermid
Hastily she clicked on the link that would bring her the full story.
A psychology lecturer was found brutally murdered in her home on the outskirts of Bremen last night. The victim’s boyfriend, who disturbed the killer, was also attacked and left for dead.
Johann Weiss, 46, an architect, was battered unconscious by his assailant when he arrived at the home of Dr Margarethe Schilling, 43. He alerted police when he regained consciousness and discovered the murdered body of his partner.
Dr Schilling was a lecturer in experimental psychology at the University of Bremen and the mother of an eight-year-old son from a previous marriage. The boy lives with his father near Worpswede.
Police are refusing to release details of the crime, but a source close to the investigation revealed that Dr Schilling’s body was bound and naked. Her body had been mutilated in a ritualistic manner.
A police spokesman said, ‘Investigations are continuing into the death of Dr Schilling. We are pursuing various lines of inquiry. This was a particularly brutal and callous murder and we are determined to bring Dr Schilling’s killer to justice. We would like to appeal for any witnesses who saw anyone in the vicinity of Dr Schilling’s home yesterday evening to contact the police immediately. We are particularly keen to speak to the driver of a dark-coloured Volkswagen Golf.’
Petra gazed at the screen, appalled and excited in equal measure. It looked as if the killer had struck again, and on German soil. And this time, there might just be a lead to pursue.
Carol followed Larry Gandle, the British Europol Liaison Officer who had picked her up at the airport, through the corridors of Europol headquarters on the Raamweg. With his sharp suit and his cropped, thinning hair, he looked more like a financial services salesman than a police officer. But there was something indefinable that marked him out as English, something beyond his nasal Black Country accent.
He led her to a small conference room on the third floor of the main building. The only window looked out on to a central courtyard, allowing no possibility of being seen from the outside world. As Carol settled herself at one corner of the long bleached wood table, the door opened and a tall, rangy dark-haired woman walked in. She had the loose-limbed stride of an athlete at home in her body. Dressed casually in black jeans, a charcoal sweater and a creased leather jacket, a black satchel promoting the Berlin Film Festival slung over her shoulder, she looked more like a TV producer than a cop. Her hair was cut short and fashionably tousled with wax. She had a triangular face, broad across the forehead and narrowing to a pointed chin beneath a thin-lipped mouth. She looked unnervingly severe until she smiled a greeting, her blue eyes crinkling at the corners and promising compromises her expression in repose flatly denied. ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I’m Petra Becker.’ She crossed the room, ignoring Gandle and making straight for Carol. ‘You must be Carol Jordan.’ She spoke English with a transatlantic hint overlaying her slight German accent.
Petra held out a hand to Carol, who stood up and shook it. ‘Pleased to meet you. This is Larry Gandle, one of the British ELOs.’
Petra nodded acknowledgement and pulled out the chair nearest Carol, so they were sitting at ninety degrees to each other. Gandle was immediately shut out of their communion, though he didn’t realize it. He sat down opposite Carol, a large expanse of table separating them. ‘Nice to meet you, Petra,’ Gandle said with an air of condescension. ‘I’m here purely to facilitate this meeting, to answer any questions that might come up that fall into our remit. But essentially, this is a joint operation between the British and the Germans, and it’s up to you two to run it in a way that works best for you.’
‘Thanks, Larry,’ Carol said, not quite dismissing him, but clearly focused now on Petra, the woman who would be her link back into her real life from the chilly wastes of deep cover. Petra would be her first line of defence, but, paradoxically, she would also be the person who could most put her at risk. For Carol, it was vital to establish a bridgehead of respect at the very least. Liking would be a bonus. ‘I appreciate you coming up here so we can thrash things out off the territory,’ she said. ‘I’m sure you’re just as busy in Berlin as I used to be in London. It’s never easy to get away from the day-to-day caseload.’
Petra raised one corner of her mouth in a crooked smile. ‘Tadeusz Radecki has been the most significant element of my case-load for a long time now. This doesn’t feel like an escape, believe me.’
‘No, I can see that. It’s a big weight off my mind that they’ve assigned me a liaison officer who knows so much about the background to the case. I’ve come into it cold, and I’m going to need all the help I can get. What I wanted to do, if this is OK with you, is to hammer out the practicalities of how we work this, while Larry’s still here to keep us straight on what’s possible and what isn’t. Then I thought the two of us could go back to the hotel and brainstorm all I need to know about Radecki and his operation. How does that sound to you?’
Gandle looked as if he was about to protest, but Petra caught his movement out of the corner of her eye and cut across him. ‘Perfect. These official meeting places are so stifling to the soul, no?’
‘Exactly. And I need to understand Radecki with my heart as well as my head. So I’m relying on you to open him up for me.’
Petra raised her eyebrows. ‘I’ll do my best.’ She paused and cocked her head to one side, studying Carol’s face. ‘You know, they told me you looked like Basler, and it’s true, your photograph does resemble her. But in the flesh, it’s uncanny. You could be her twin sister. You are going to blow Radecki away. I swear to God, he is going to be freaked out when he sees you.’
‘Let’s hope it’s in a good way,’ Carol said, feeling self-conscious under the other woman’s appraising gaze.
‘Oh, I think so. I don’t see how he could resist.’ Petra smiled. ‘I think this is going to work.’
‘It’ll work,’ Gandle said confidently. ‘DCI Jordan is one hell of an operator.’
Petra ignored him and continued to focus on Carol. ‘So, we need to establish where you are going to be staying in Berlin, how we feed you into Tadzio’s world, and then how you and I maintain contact.’
‘For starters, yes.’
Petra opened her satchel and took out a stylish ring-bound notebook, its pages edged in a rainbow of colours, its black plastic covers embossed with a chain-link design. She flipped it open at the green section and tore out a page. ‘I think a hotel is not a good idea for you. Too many people have access to the room, and it’s too easy for Radecki’s people to bribe a chambermaid to let them in. Radecki himself may be bowled over by your resemblance to Katerina, but I think the people around him – especially his lieutenant, Krasic – will be suspicious of you. Krasic will want to check you out as far as he possibly can. What I think is better is this: there is a building on a quiet street between the Ku’damm and Olivaerplatz that used to be a hotel and has been turned into service apartments. They are mostly used by business people, like you are supposed to be. Each has a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a small kitchen. You rent them by the week and a maid comes in twice a week to change the linen and to clean the place. It will be more secure, but also you will feel more at home there. It will be more relaxing, no?’
Carol nodded. ‘Sounds good to me.’
Petra passed her the sheet of paper, which contained an address and phone number. ‘I checked this morning that they have vacancies. I pretended to be a business associate of yours and asked them to hold one for you. They’re expecting you to call. You do have credit cards in your alias?’
‘I’ve got everything. Passport, driving licence, credit cards, a couple of old utility bills and bank statements. I don’t have any Carol Jordan ID on me at all – I handed it all over to Larry for safekeeping.’ She smiled across at him. ‘Just don’t sell my warrant card on the black market, Larry.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Don’t tempt me.’
‘Next is how we stay in contact,’ Petra contin
ued.
‘Now, I’ve got something that will help here,’ Gandle butted in. ‘Carol, you’re going to have a laptop with you, right?’
‘That’s right. The London boys set it up. It’s all Caroline Jackson stuff. A shedload of old e-mails, various business-related files and letters. Plenty of stuff to back up my cover story and nothing that shouldn’t be there.’
Gandle placed his showy aluminium briefcase on the table and snapped open the locks. He produced a flat black rectangle with a cable protruding from one end. ‘This is an auxiliary hard drive that you can plug straight into your laptop. It’s preloaded with all the access codes you need to get into TECS.’
‘TECS?’ Petra asked.
‘The Europol dedicated computer system. It incorporates an analysis system like the one you’ve trained on, Carol, together with an index system. And we’ve just got the information system up and running, so you can access all we hold on Radecki and his known associates. Everything Petra and her colleagues have passed on to us is in there, at the touch of a key. There’s also an encryption system that will allow you to send secure e-mail to anyone who has the key. Petra, we’re also going to make that available to you, so Carol can communicate securely with you via e-mail, which will be much safer than phone calls.
‘And to keep it out of sight …’ His hand went back into the briefcase and came out with a blue rubber box with a stubby antenna coming out of one corner. ‘The coolest radio in town,’ he said. ‘You can buy them in all the smartest shops. Only, this one’s different. The techies stripped out the guts of it and inserted a miniature radio. It works just like the original, but when you open it up –’ he pushed a metal slider on the base of the radio and it fell neatly in half – ‘there’s a hiding place for your spare hard drive.’
Carol and Petra exchanged a look and burst out laughing. ‘Boys and their toys,’ Carol spluttered.
Gandle looked offended. ‘It does work, you know. Nobody’s going to give it a second look.’
‘Sorry, Larry, it’s very clever,’ Carol said, not wanting to alienate her British back-up. ‘And you’re right, it’s entirely unsuspicious.’ She reached for the radio and slotted the hard drive into place then closed it up. She pressed a small blue rubber button and static crackled out of the speaker. ‘Very good. It’s exactly what I need, even if it does make me feel a bit like James Bond.’
‘So, that solves your communication problems,’ Gandle said, closing his briefcase with a self-satisfied smile.
‘Only technically,’ Petra said.
‘I’m sorry?’ Gandle said.
‘It’s not enough. Undercover is shit. It’s the scariest, most isolated place in the world. And then you have the added risk of Zelig’s Syndrome.’
‘Zelig’s Syndrome?’ Gandle frowned.
‘Like in Woody Allen’s film, Zelig. Zelig is so insecure that he becomes a human chameleon, taking on not only the style and manner but also the appearance of the people he moves among. It’s the big danger for the undercover cop. You spend so much time with these people, alienated from your own culture, that you start to identify with them.’
‘You go native,’ Carol said.
‘Precisely. E-mail is all very well for the exchange of information, but it will not protect you from yourself. For that, we need face-to-face contact.’
Gandle looked dubious. ‘You already said that Radecki’s people are going to be suspicious around Carol. They’re going to be watching her. And, with respect, Petra, you’re a Berlin cop. Somebody’s bound to recognize you. The last thing we want is to take the risk of regular meetings between the pair of you.’
‘I think we can do this at no risk to Carol,’ Petra said firmly. ‘There is a very upscale women’s health club a few blocks away from the apartment. As well as the gym and the swimming pool, they have private sauna suites that members can book for half-hour sessions. This is not a place where Krasic or anyone else in Radecki’s inner circle can follow us. Trust me, Larry, I would not make an arrangement that would expose Carol.’
Gandle looked dubious, but Carol nodded. ‘I agree. it’s important to keep me connected to the real world. Besides, sometimes you need to talk something through face to face. There might be things that I see or hear but don’t understand the significance of, things I might leave out of a written report because I don’t realize they’re important. But Petra will know the right questions to ask to draw the information out of me. I think she’s right, Larry. We need that regular contact.’
Gandle fiddled with his silk tie. ‘I don’t know, Carol. You will be going in and out of Berlin every seven to ten days, we were thinking that you’d get your debriefs then. In London or here.’
‘Ten days can be a very long time on the front line,’ Petra said. ‘It’s up to Carol, of course …’ She met Carol’s eyes, an expectant look on her face.
Carol gave an almost imperceptible nod. ‘What you have to remember is that I’ve never done undercover before. I want all the back-up I can get. If I get burned, I need to be able to get clear in a hurry. With the best will in the world, Larry, you’re not going to be much use to me up here in The Hague. If it all goes belly-up, Petra’s the one who’s going to have to deal with it on the spot. We need an arrangement to cover that eventuality. It’s not as if she’s going to be sitting glued to her computer twenty-four seven. And if the shit hits the fan, I may not even be able to get back to the apartment to access the computer. I want an insurance policy, Larry, and from where I’m sitting, that’s Petra.’
Gandle pursed his lips. ‘I’m not happy about this. Maybe it would be better if I came to Berlin too. Then you could liaise directly with me.’
Carol shook her head. ‘You don’t know the background like Petra does, and you certainly don’t know the city like she does.’ He still looked mutinous. Time to play her ace. ‘Morgan told me I should set up systems that I felt comfortable with. And this works for me. If you’re still not happy, I suggest we run it past him.’
Gandle flushed. ‘I don’t think that will be necessary. If it’s what you want, I’m prepared to support you. Though, for the record, I do have my reservations.’
‘Thank you,’ Carol said prettily. It was good to know that Morgan’s name carried as much clout as she had suspected. ‘That’s settled, then. Petra, you said you wanted to talk about how I infiltrate Radecki’s world. What did you have in mind?’
‘If you are going to do these things, they should be done in style. I have a plan that I believe is both stylish and also calculated to hit Radecki in his weakest spot,’ Petra said.
Carol grinned. ‘I can’t wait to hear it.’
19
The phone was ringing as Tony walked back into his office after a lecture that he feared had bored his students almost as much as it had him. He grabbed it as he slumped into his chair. ‘Tony Hill,’ he said, covering his ennui with a coating of brightness.
‘Dr Hill? This is Penny Burgess. I don’t know if you remember me …’
‘I remember you,’ he said abruptly. Penny Burgess had been the crime correspondent of the Bradfield Sentinel Times when Tony had been working with the local police on his first serial killer case. She’d dogged his footsteps and done her best to turn him into a household name.
‘The thing is, Tony, I was hoping we might have a little chat. In the light of what happened in the Court of Appeal this afternoon.’
The danger signs were flashing before his eyes. If Vance’s appeal had failed, nobody would care what he thought. ‘I’m sorry’ he stalled. ‘I haven’t heard the news today. What are you talking about?’
‘Nobody called you?’ Penny sounded surprised.
‘I’ve been teaching. I literally just walked through the door when you rang. What happened in the Court of Appeal?’
‘The judges decided that Vance’s conviction for the murder of Shaz Bowman was unsafe.’
Tony felt as if a pit had opened at his feet. A spasm of dizziness left him clinging with
his free hand to the edge of the desk. Through the buzzing in his ears he could hear Penny Burgess speak. He compelled himself to listen to the words. ‘It’s not as bad as it seems,’ she was saying. ‘He was immediately rear-rested and charged with the murder of Barbara Fenwick. He’s back behind bars, on remand. According to a police source of mine, there was a witness statement from a market trader in the original investigation that completely undermined the case and made the CPS decide not to proceed on that charge back then.’
‘I remember,’ Tony acknowledged.
‘Well, apparently, a BBC radio reporter has been investigating the case, and she’s managed to get the witness on tape admitting that he only said what he did because Vance asked him to. He’s now completely recanted his earlier statement. So there’s going to be another trial, and I hear that the CPS are quietly confident. I wondered what your thoughts on the matter were.’
‘I’ve got no comment to make,’ he said wearily.
‘I’m not asking you to comment on the new charges, obviously that’s sub judice. But you must be upset that he’s walked free of the murder of someone you were mentoring.’
‘Like I said, I’ve got no comment.’ Tony gently replaced the receiver on its cradle. He wanted to slam it down hard enough to break the plastic casing, but the habit of self-control was too deeply ingrained for that. He closed his eyes and let out his breath in a long steady stream. That bastard Vance had once threatened to make his life a misery. It looked as though he was fulfilling his promise. He might well be convicted of other killings now, but he had wriggled out of the one murder conviction that really mattered to Tony. Not only that, but the relative anonymity he’d struggled to find had been shattered with a single phone call.
